Buffy AVP: Hive
by MrPointy2
Summary: Repercussions from the events in "Synthesis" echo throughout Earth and the Galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Buffy walked through the front door of her home. She stood there for a moment watching the world around her with eyes as wide and unblinking as the eyes of a newborn child. Everything here was new to her and at the same time old and wrong. She was no longer just Buffy. She held within her billions of years of alien memories that informed her of the true nature of the universe and at the same time the full power of the slayer flowed through her demanding that she slay. Buffy no longer considered herself Buffy. She knew herself as _Hive_. It was the name of the world she was going to build. It was the name of the mind she wore in the veil of her flesh.

A gaggle of girls came to her. They were the _potentials_, girls marked by the same spirit that possessed her now. Buffy let her gaze slide over them. She realized just how weak and irreverent they were. Alien memories had already informed her of the presence of the Turok Han under Sunnydale high and how to defeat them. As Hive, she considered the _potentials_ a joke.

Dawn burst through the potentials.

"Buffy!" She exclaimed. Dawn was a fifteen year old girl with brown hair and brown eyes and the beginning of hips. Dawn moved towards Buffy who stepped back sharply. The key was here! The twin helix of the key illuminated the room with its green dimensional energy. Along the edges of Dawn Buffy could see space and time ripple as her energies ate away at the integrity of the universe. The key was death which made Dawn a monster and she was the slayer of monsters.

"Don't do this." The memories of Willow said to her. "She's your sister!"

Buffy responded to Willow within. "The Key is the enemy of the hive."

Giles walked through the door. At a glance he could tell that there was a tension between Buffy and the other girls. He expected something like that. Earlier tonight Buffy had defeated an alien Predator in hand to hand combat by invoking the joining spell. The full power of the slayer flowed through her now. But in addition, she also had the blood memories of the entire xenomorph species. A billion plus years of memories burned in her mind. Buffy knew unspeakable secrets. She was the memory of the living galaxy made flesh. It took Giles only a moment to understand the reason for the tension. Even as he moved to interrupt the creature that Buffy had become, he knew it was too late.

**Across the galaxy near the Yaujta home world:**

Four kings sat around a fire. In the center of them advance holographic technology replayed events from far across the galaxy. A Yaujta fleet had recorded the end of the _long hunt_ and the death of Barik Null. These kings knew Barik. He was the stuff of history and legend. More than one religion had sprung up around the tale of how Barik was taken by monsters and forced to hunt in the afterlife, tales of how he was enslaved by devils and forced to become the slayer of slayers. They knew Barik in other ways too. The long hunt had started over ten thousand years ago. Every king here was one of his descendants. They watched the pale holographic image of Buffy Summers floating in the air. They watched as fire sprung from her hand. They watched their ancestor die with honor .

The image faded. They talked among themselves for hours. When it was done they were all agreed. Barik died with honor but he was not used in an honorable way. The Senior Partners had used him to kill girls young enough to be considered children. The decision was unanimous. They were owed a debt of blood. They would hunt the Senior partners and collect the blood debt.

But that was not the reason they were here.

Each of the four kings stood before a remote access panel which was a round dais with oversized palm sized scanners. They stood together in a circle with the palm of their right hand pressed into the cold glass screen. The device they summoned could only be activated by their living DNA. On the device, lights flashed from red to green. The command was given.

Light years away machines flashed to life. Planet sized masses began to move towards the black pit. The Yaujta had activated a particle beam weapon powered by a black hole the size of a solar system. If necessary, they could throw stars into it. When they found the Senior Partners they would kill them no matter where they hid.

The kings departed. Each of them went to their respective flag ship. Above them, over a million Yaujta battleships waited for commands. The children Barik Null would have their revenge.

Buffy approached Dawn. The thing that pretended to be her sister had to know. "The vessel has outlived its purpose." Buffy said to her. "You must be removed."

"What?" Dawn said. A slow realization came to her. This was not the first time she had seen Buffy go crazy and try to kill her friends. Dawn pleaded with her.

"Please Buffy, I am your sister." Buffy looked at her. Her eyes were bright, vacant and cold. "You are the vessel." Buffy said. "You shouldn't be here."

Buffy waived her hand and spoke a spell only she knew. As she was crying, as she was pleading for her life Dawn faded into nothing along with all the memories attached to her. Afterwards, only Buffy ever knew she ever existed. The others looked around the room then at each other as if awaking from a dream.

"I have to fix this world." Buffy said. "It is broken and I am the law."


	2. Chapter 2

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Even though the Summer's house was full of girls it was strangely silent. It felt as if something profound had just happened. It felt as if someone had just died but all the potentials were well and accounted for. Giles didn't know what to make of it. The girls were all upstairs moping on the couch. Some of them were crying. They carried a sadness they could not name.

Giles met with Robin in the in the cold damp basement. Buffy worried him. He had seen her become more powerful than any slayer that ever lived. He had seen her burn a blood zombie in mid air with a wave of her hand. Her eyes were wide, cold and unblinking. Giles knew she had trouble remembering that she was human. He was worried about her. He had not been this worried about her since she killed Willow with her bare hands.

Robin slowly made his way down the stairs. His brown skin glistened under the stark glow of the single light bulb that illuminated the dank basement. He had been out earlier patrolling for vampires. He had worked up a sweat.

Robin Wood was a solidly built man in his mid thirties. He came to Sunnydale posing as a school principle. He came to Sunnydale to spy on Buffy. He wanted to see what sort of woman she was. Robin Wood was the son of a slayer. He'd lost his mother when he was a child. She was killed by a blond vampire years ago. As his revenge, Robin made a vow to kill every evil thing that came across his path. His blood hunt was still incomplete and it would be until he killed the thing that killed his mother.

"Have you seen Buffy yet?" Giles asked him.

"No." Robin said. "I came directly here when I got your message."

Giles spoke. His words were nervous. Robin could swear he saw fear on the Watchers face.

"Tonight, Buffy faced a legend." He said. Giles explained the mythos of the blood zombie to Robin. "She's changed and I don't know if I can change her back. " Giles removed his glasses and cleaned them with a small white cloth. "Buffy is no longer just a slayer. She is the synthesis of slayer and alien."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Robin asked. "We're still at war with the First. If Buffy is now some type of super slayer then…"

"Buffy has the blood memories of a species that gestates inside a living human host, bursts out of them at birth killing them instantly. It stands nearly eight feet tall, has poly-silicon skin and acid for blood. It reproduces by rape. They are a species that considers all other life in the universe as female, simply host bodies to be impregnated. The source of them is the queen that starts their reproductive cycle. Buffy thinks she is one of their queens. " Robin didn't know what to say. Buffy sounded worst than the demons.

"For now, Buffy wants to protect the planet. " Giles said. "She considers this whole world her hive."

"What can I do?" Robin asked. He didn't believe half of what Giles said. He would go upstairs to see Buffy himself when this was over. Talk of aliens and blood memories was unimportant to him. All he cared about right now was defeating the bringers and ending the First.

"If the time comes, I need to know you stand with us if we have to move against Buffy." Giles said. Robin nodded his head. After a few minutes the meeting ended. Robin returned upstairs to speak with Buffy.

There was a stirring in the shadows. A man with blonde hair and sharp cheekbones appeared. Spike came out of the shadows in the basement and walked up to Giles. He had heard everything said to Robin.

"So you think you can trust him?" Spike asked.

"It's not him I'm worried about." Giles said. Spike had been debriefed on the situation with Buffy soon after the death of Willow. "I'm convinced that Buffy has become a danger to us all." Giles whispered. "She has the mystical powers of the slayer combined with billions of years of alien memories." Spike looked at him. He had a hard time understanding what Buffy had become.

"Be careful of her." Giles warned. "She may no longer see you as a ally." Spike understood. Even though it hurt him to consider going against the slayer he knew that soon he may be at war with Buffy.

They head potentials scurrying down the stairs. Caridad peeked her head over the stairs.

"Mr. Giles!" she yelled.

"Yes?" Giles answered.

"It's Buffy. She's gone!"

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." Eve muttered to herself as she paced back and forth in Angel's office. Gunn and Angel watched her with no small level of amusement.

"I think she's broken." said Gunn. He was dressed in faded blue jeans and a green tee shirt. The boss had called him in on a Saturday. He made a choice to dress casual. "I think being the butt monkey for a prime source of evil has finally gotten to her."

"She was damaged before she got here." Angel said referring to the liaison to the Senior Partners. Eve heard him. She stopped dead in the center of the room and stared at them with eyes that held a mixture of contempt and fear. The world was coming to an end and these two clowns sat and make jokes. She marched up to Angel. Her face was red.

"Everyone on Earth is about to die!" she said. Angel and Gunn looked at her with dumb puppy dog expressions. Eve rolled her eyes. "I have it from very good sources that the Yautja have launched a major blood feud against the senior partners. This is not a hunt. They don't want trophies. They want to find the senior partners and kill them, kill them all."

Angel and Gunn looked at each other. "Sounds like these guys are doing our job for us." Angel said. Eve wondered if Angel was stupid.

"You don't remember anything Holland Manners told you?" Eve asked. Angel searched his mind. His encounter with the previous CEO of Wolfram and Hart was a long time ago.

"Remember that little elevator trip you took with Holland Manners? Remember where it ended? The senior partners are in the hearts and mind of every single person on the planet."

"So?" said Angel. Eve's palm slammed down on his desk.

"You idiot! The home world of the senior partners is Earth!" It took Angel and Gunn a moment to put the pieces together.

"Surely the senior partners can defend themselves?" Angel asked.

"That's what I'm worried about." Said Eve as she resumed her pacing. "An all out, no holds barred war between the senior partner and the Yautja will leave the Earth a smoking hole in space." Eve stopped pacing long enough to inform Angel.

"The senior partners are working on a defense now. But understand this Angel. The senior partners and the home office are not the same thing. Earth is just where they do business." Eve looked at him.

"Understood." Said Angel. Eve was telling him that the Earth was expendable.

She stood outside of the new and improved Sunnydale high. Soft warm wind blew across Buffy's skin. She could feel the air stirring her hair. She could feel the elder energies of the hellmouth speaking to her. She knew there was a dimensional portal beneath the school and she knew the monsters that guarded it. Buffy was no longer Buffy. She considered herself the body and flesh unification of Hive and as such her primary duty was to keep the Hive safe for her brood.

She held the scythe in her hand. It was covered in the blood of the bringers. She had no problem taking what belonged to her. It was child's play slaughtering Caleb. Even with the power of the First coursing through him he was no match for Buffy's magics.

Blood splattered from the scythe as she slung it over her shoulder. She marched towards the school. Her plan was simple. She would open the hellmouth, go down into it, and eliminate the thousands of Turok-han that lay beneath.


	3. Chapter 3

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

The school was locked. Buffy shattered the bullet proof glass on the school entrance and opened the door by reaching around to the inside. She found the alarm system to be simple. She ripped out a single wire and it was dead. She stood alone in the silent hallway. The school was a dark lonely place.

She had her memories from when she was Buffy. She remembered a locker where a girl who was ignored to the point of being invisible stood and told spoke of her woes. She remembered a puppet trying to kill her here. She remembered the pool where the swim team was turned into creatures from the black lagoon. This and a thousand other memories assailed Hive as she breezed through the catalog that was the life of Buffy Summers.

"Miss the good old days Buffy?" asked the memory of Willow Rosenberg. Buffy had consumed her under the influence of the Janus spell when she mystically assumed the aspects of a alien queen. One of those aspects was a magical connection to blood memories.

"I remember these things." Hive said to herself. "I remember my life as the Buffy." She scanned the dark and empty class rooms as she passed them, as he made her way to the seal in the basement of the school.

"Ah Buf, is there any way I can stop you from being crazy?" The memory of Willow asked.

Hive answered the question with only a tiny part of her mind. Her thoughts were focused on the thing she was about to do. "I am not broken." Hive responded. "I am simply more than I was. I am better."

"Yeah." responded Willow. "All the crazy people think they're ok until the SWAT team arrives." The Willow memory hesitated then rapidly spoke.

"_prohibere omnes motus_" Willow spoke a binding spell. Something like clear jelly enveloped Buffy. The full power of the slayer illuminated Buffy's flesh. There was an orange white flash of light. Hive forced her way through the liquid walls of magic. She continued on her way without breaking her stride. That's' when Willow began to become afraid of her.

The Seal of Danzalthar was exactly where she remembered. In the moist dirt in the school basement was an ancient brass seal that marked the entrance to the hellmouth. Hive read the elder runes inscribed on the seal. She understood the language. She remembered speaking it billions of years ago. She was deep in thought studying when she heard footsteps behind her.

She could tell by the sound of foot on dirt _exactly_ who it was. Buffy jerked to attention, turned and sliced across the face of the bringer that had sneaked up on her. Her scythe cut through bone as if it was paper. She was much stronger now. Hive had already returned to studying the runes before the body hit the ground. The slayer smiled. She knew how to open the seal.

Hive dipped her finger in the blood of the fallen bringer and wrote the proper spell across the seal. The letters were bright and ancient and red. She had to refresh the blood several times. There was a low rumbling sound as if a door from beyond the world was opening. Sections of the seal shifted. It rotated slowly as it lowered itself into the Earth. Hive waited until the hellmouth was fully opened before she jumped in.

Giles entered Buffy's room looking for a clue as to where she may have gone. His eyes scanned over the walls covered with crosses and the rumpled sheets covering her bed. Something caught his eye. It was white pieces of a broken plaster. Giles walked to the edge of her bed. He could see the Janus bust broken into a thousand pieces. The only way to return Buffy to normal was gone.

"Oh Buffy." Giles thought to himself . "What have you become?"

She worked the energies of the hellmouth and ended up exactly where she wanted to be, The hellmouth was not a throat as the humans thought. It was a connecting point between hell worlds. Most of whom had been sealed behind thick walls of dimensional energy. But here, the walls had _cracked_, and things found their way into the world of man, She stood on a cliff in a cavern nearly a mile wide. She stared down at the Turok-Han. They looked so peaceful. They had not noticed her yet.

"Are you sure?" The Willow within asked."Are you sure you can control it?" Hive did not answer. She didn't understand the question. Buffy took her scythe and jammed it into the ground point first. She waived her fingers over it and spoke in a language that had not been heard on Earth in over three hundred million years.

"How do you know they will let you live?" Willow asked.

"I am their queen. We are connected." Hive answered. Buffy began to speak louder and faster. Below her the Turok-Han began to stir. They had noticed her. Near the foot of the cliff hundreds of Turok-Han begin to crawl upwards towards her.

"But how do you know?" The memory of Willow was insistent. "How do you know they will be loyal?" She asked.

"My children and I are one. We are not divided by economics or politics. We have no word for individual. We have only Hive." Twenty Turok-Han popped over the edge of the cliff. They rushed towards Buffy with glittering fangs exposed.

"_Aperire_!" Buffy said the last word of the spell. Behind her a dark portal opened. Within, oceans of obsidian blackness stirred. The first Turok-Han was nearly upon her when something huge and fast came out of the portal. Silicon claws tore into the Turok-Han. A spiky tail stabbed into its throat. The alien lifted the Turok-Han off of it's feet. It opened its mouth, second mouth appeared. The alien punched through the bone around the Turok-Han's heart. It exploded in a cloud of dust.

The rushing Turok-Han paused but it was too late. Buffy has opened a portal to the alien home world. Hundreds of thousands of aliens poured into the hellmouth. The killing went on for hours. When it was done Hive ordered them back into portal. Two of the aliens remained. She would need them to start her Hive.


	4. Chapter 4

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Robin walked down the dark streets of Sunnydale. He was upset. A friend of his had just died. According to Giles, Buffy was stuck in the confluence of the Janus spell and the full power of the slayer. She was, for all intents, someone else now. She was a slayer with vivid alien memories. She called herself Hive.

He was just beginning to know Buffy. He thought she was funny, a fierce fighter and kind of cute. Buffy was gone now just like his mother. He did not expect her to die like this and that made him mad. Buffy, his mother should not die because of the work they did. Old wounds were reopened. Robin looked for something to kill. He spotted the vampires from across the street. They looked like a normal couple walking down the street but Robin could tell they were vampires. There was just something about the arrogant way they carried themselves. Their body language was obvious. They were shopping. They were shopping for someone to eat. Robin fell in line behind them.

As he followed them into the dark alley all he could think about was the blonde monster that killed his mother. He could feel his blood pressure spiking. He could feel his rage building. If he couldn't find the thing that killed his mother he would have his blood vengeance on these two monsters.

As Robin closed in on the vampires he could swear that he saw something vaguely human and invisible flickering in the shadows. Something crunched under his foot.

"Shit!" Robin thought as he looked down. He had stepped on something, he had made a noise. The vampires turned to stare at him. They had found a meal and it was him. Their faces changed. Their eyes glowed an evil yellow. Robin revealed his stake. The male vampire smiled.

"So, you fancy yourself a slayer?" It said as it began to lazily walk towards Robin. "You won't taste as sweet but you'll do." The vampire leapt. Robin brought his left arm up to block off the space above the monsters heart. As their bodies hit, he took the stake in his right hand and jammed into the vampire's chest. It exploded in a cloud of dust. As the dust expanded Robin could swear he saw a blood red laser scanning the alley. The back scatter of light from the expanding cloud of dust lead back to the spot where he could have sworn he saw something invisible moving in the dark.

"Invisible demons?" Robin thought. As he got to his feet, blue fire shot out of nowhere nailing the other vampire square in the chest. Its flesh exploded backwards splattering against the alley wall as it turned to dust. Robin slowly turned.

The predator made itself visible as it approached the warrior. It was not here for the hunt. It was here for vendetta. He served the children of Barik Null. They wanted the creatures that forced the _long hunt_ on their ancestor. The entire time Barik Null had been forced to hunt on Earth his children watched the slayer, her family and friends. They knew more about the slayer than the watchers. The predator pressed a set of buttons on his wristband. An image appeared in the air. It was a high resolution video image of the death of Nikki Wood.

He watched them dance. On a train, in New York, almost forty years ago, a vampire and slayer circled each other. The slayer was his mother. He watched as she kicked Spike who staggered from the blow. Nikki grabbed Spike's arm and was able to kick him again in the stomach before throwing him through a window. Spike yelled like a banshee into the New York night. She pulled him back into the train and assaulted him again. The train entered a tunnel. She fell on top of him. There was a flickering in the dark. Now Spike was on top of her. He said something strange then. He said. "Death is your art. You make it with your hands." Spike snapped his mother's neck. The image faded. Robin was flabbergasted.

"Wha…what is this?" He said. The monster before him was trying to show him something. "What do you want?" Robin asked.

"Blood." Said the Predator. "We will trade blood for blood. I will join you in your blood hunt against the thing that killed your mother if you help us in the fight against the things that killed Buffy Summers and forced Barik Null into the _long hunt_."

"Deal!" Robin said without thinking. He looked forward to killing Spike and no matter what the creature before him said he still believed that Buffy could be saved. He wasn't giving up on her just yet.


	5. Chapter 5

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Angel was off the phone. After the events in Sunnydale he found the courage to reach out to Giles. The Sunydale crew had never forgiven him for taking over the L.A. branch of Wolf Ram and Hart. He was surprised when Giles took his call.

"She what?" Angel said shocked at what Giles was telling him. Gunn and Eve sat in the office across from him.

"We monitored events from here." Angel said. "Seems that the Senior Partners arranged this whole thing."

"They WHAT!" Everyone could hear Giles screaming over the phone. "of all the irresponsible, stupid…"

"Hey, this was all set up before I took over." Angel tried to defend himself.

"And you wonder why no one trusts you?" Giles asked. Angel exhaled.

"Look, I'm going to send some back up. I know someone that may be helpful in returning the slayer." Angel said.

"We don't need any more monsters!" Giles said. He made a rude noise then hung up sharply. The young woman looked up. Her soulful brown eyes showed none of the pain she held.

"Looks like Giles is still as cranky as ever." She said.

"If he doesn't want you…" Angel said.

"You think anyone's gonna keep me out of Sunnydale?" The woman said. " I owe B my life. Even if she did stab me in the gut." Angel and Gunn understood. It was hard to shake friendships forged in combat. Angel reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a gaudy necklace. He tossed over to the young woman.

"This was originally meant as a weapon in Buffy's war with the First. You might still be able use it for something else." Angel said. The woman made midair grab of the necklace with one hand. She looked it over carefully.

"Get me a helicopter boss man. It's time to drop in on the old gang." Behind her eyes Angel could see that she was working out a plan for her reunion with Buffy Summers.

A police car was parked outside of the house. Giles had called officer Manning in for the meeting. Last night Manning had intercepted Buffy as she fought and killed an alien predator. She was only able to do it by assuming the guise of an alien queen. Now Buffy was something they had never seen before. She was a human with alien memories under the full power of the joining spell. She was the synthesis of alien and slayer. Giles had brought her home thinking he could reverse the spell but Buffy had smashed the Janus bust and disappeared into the night. It was morning now. Buffy was still missing. Giles had come to fear the worst.

The Summers house was quiet. There was a strange sadness that hung in the air. It felt like someone had just died. Giles knew that wasn't true. He counted all the Potentials. Everyone was present and accounted for.

Manning stood in the living room and looked around him. His eyes searched for clues as what was really happening here. He was still a cop. He still had instincts for reading a crime scene. Even though there was no body here everything told him that death was in this house.

"Who's the cutie pie?" Whispered Caridad to Rona. The two potentials sat on the couch giving Manning the once over. They were both bored and horny. Manning was tall and thin with a well trimmed goatee. He wore black jeans and a dark jacket which made him look all the more mysterious and hence more attractive to the Potentials. With Buffy missing in action and Giles pulling his hair out looking for her, the Potentials had begun looking for trouble wherever they could find it. Caridad yawned in a long leisurely stretch. She smiled when Manning noticed her. The straps of her red cotton bra showed outside of her blue halter top. Rona noticed her actions and frowned.

"Girl, you are scandalous!" She said. Manning desperately looked around for a way to escape the lecherous young women. Absent mindedly he placed he hands on his hips. He butt of his gun showed.

"That's a big gun you've got there. Use it much?" Caridad said seductively.

"We need somebody here to keep these girls under control." Manning thought.

It was almost dark when she arrived. Giles met the young woman at the door.

"Yo, Jeeves what's shak'n?" She said. The young woman before him stood about five foot nine. She had brown hair and an oval face. Her body was trim and naturally fit. She moved like a predator. Her eyes constantly checked the environment for hidden dangers. She was a slayer .

"It's Giles not Jeeves." Giles said in mock frustration. Despite their complicated history, he was quite happy to see her. Now he felt that he had half a chance to save his slayer.

"Angel tells me that you have taken the path of redemption. That is certainly good news." Giles said to her.

"I do what I can." She said. Her voice held a tinge of sadness. She remembered the pain she had caused the watcher. She vowed never to take the dark path again.

Giles held the door open for her and bade her to enter. He looked at her. He could tell that she still had her misgivings.

"Are you ok to return to the scene of the crime so to speak?" Giles asked.

She spoke as she stepped past him into the Summer's home.

"Five by Five." said Faith Lehane. She walked into the house and noticed Caridad leering at the stranger standing in the living room.

"Hello ladies." She said to the Potentials. "Looks like I'm the new sheriff in town." Faith gave Caridad the same burning look she'd given to some of the women in prison. Caridad pulled her halter top back over the straps of her bra.

"How bad have things gotten if I'm the voice of reason?" Faith looked around the room. She knew she had a lot of work to do here.


	6. Chapter 6

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Something fast jumped between the bushes. It was tan and hard with far too many legs. The target came out of the bushes and scrambled up what looked like a tree. A ball of plasma came out of nowhere. Yellowish flesh exploded into the air. The prey was dead. The Predator appeared in a vortex of shimmering air. It stepped forward. Its heavy foot left prints in the alien mud. The Predator was satisfied. The hunting animal had provided sufficient interest to fend off his boredom and had added quite a few points to his score. When his score became high enough he would have enough points to purchase a home and solicit for a mate.

Above his head, the landscape of the asteroid curved along the walls of the twenty mile long asteroid that was the flagship of his fleet. Puffy white clouds clung to the curved landscape which was dotted with forests and towns all controlled by thousands of quantum computers. The "Aerial Strike" was his personal property and the flagship of the fleet. It had been in his family for almost ten thousand years. He was proud of his accomplishments and the accomplishments of the children of Barik Null. His face plate was beeping. He answered it.

His slave, thought hunter admiral Andorra Null, appeared in the holographic display embedded in his facemask. She was responsible for managing the fleet in his hunt for the Senior Partners.

"Speak." said Mortok Null.

"My lord, we have located the dark place." She said. Mortok was pleased. Their oldest records of the senior partners spoke of a world burnt black by their magics. It is said that this was the place where they transformed themselves into the ultimate form of evil. They would start their hunt for the senior partners here.

"Put it on screen. " He said to her. An image came up on the faceplate view screen. A squad of janissaries, his battle slaves, was down on the planet. They moved through a grey white fog on a world that crouched in permanent twilight. Millions of years ago a spell had gone wrong or terribly right. Despite a sun being in the sky, the planet was always in a half light darkness as if it was covered by the terrible shadow of something that leered over it from beyond the stars. Mortok wished he was with them. His family obligations forbid that. He had taken a vow to save himself so that he could deliver the killing blow to the senior partners himself.

Below, they moved in the elder world of the dark place. Around the hunters, dark shadows moved between the rocks. Overhead, things flew that were not birds. Their scanners showed nothing but the torn and blasted landscape around them but their instincts screamed at them that they were in a place of pure horror.

"I got movement!" One of them said. The Predator scanned the nearby rocks. His in mask display showed a brief flash of something in the infrared. A meter of razor sharp claw extended from his wrist but it was two late. Invisible jaws sank into his shoulder. Fluorescent blood shot into the air. He didn't scream. The Predator swiped the claws across his invisible attacker. He hit something. The claws stuck in something heavy and wet.

The others didn't wait to be attacked. Plasma shotguns and automatic gunfire filled the air. The dark place was lit up with the electric blue white glow of fire power. The rocks around them melted under their barrage. They were about to reload when something heavy and invisible like the foot of a great beast stomped down on them crushing them into paste.

Mortok saw it all. He was impressed. Whatever security system the senior partners had in place was still active and very effective. He honored the hunters by authorizing the transfer of points earned from the hunt back to their respective family pool. In a few generations their descendants would be rich enough to buy property on the home world.

Despite their failure he got the information he needed. The senior partners where not here. He talked with thought hunter Andorra for a while. They decided to go to the next world on their list.

Mortok switched channels as the fleet moved out. Hundreds of meters below him the game masters made themselves ready. He gave the signal. They released the alien. It popped up out of its underground pen. The alien scanned the landscape. It's spiky tale shot up in the air. It opened it mouth, then its second mouth. The alien hissed at the predator as it disappeared into the underbrush. Mortok primed his plasma gun and went after it.

In a room beyond the world, the three huddled together. Undulating patterns of light meshed together in bright quick conversations that covered volumes of thought in fractions of a second. The senior partners were old and evolved. Their race had crawled out of the mud of the home world billions of years before the earth was formed. They went through the usual steps of industry, economics and politics. In the end, they simply settled for power itself.

Their wars had shattered planets and burnt stars out of the sky. When they found magic everything changed. Gone were the simple tools of their technology and with it went science and reason. All that was left was the mindless hunger to conquer. When the Earth was a molten ball of nickel iron, the senior partners looked out upon the galaxy and saw the trillions of life forms there. Almost by instinct, they began to conquer every natural and unnatural thing in sight. For the most part they succeeded. However, there were still pockets of wildness scattered here and there in the galaxy.

"They have discovered the dark place." Said sharp blue light trimmed in white.

"Soon they will be on Earth." An orange red illumination shimmered.

"We will unleash the Red Man. Our answer is in the deeper well." Declared a square of burning darkness.

Hours later Eve performed the ritual. Something humanoid with chalk white skin trimmed in red appeared out of the boiling blood of the sacrifice. The Red Man looked at her then disappeared. He was on his way to the deeper well to awaken the Old Ones from their eons long sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

She tossed herself on the bed. Faith was tired. She had spent all day whipping the Potentials into shape. She had picked up the training and exercise schedule created by Buffy and Giles. Though if the rumors were true, Caleb was dead and the bringers had been slaughtered. Spike and Robin was checking it out. If it was true, she would send the Potentials packing. She found the thought using a bunch of untrained teenage girls to fight the forces of evil ridiculous. Only a fully activated slayer had the speed, the strength and calling to fight the vampire. What the hell was Buffy and Giles thinking?

Faith turned over. She looked at the ceiling for a moment. She smelled herself.

"I stink." She said. "I need a shower." Faith stood. She pulled her t-shirt over her head. It was wet with her perspiration. Faith wore a simple white cotton bra underneath. She caught sight of the many scars on her arm. Absentmindedly, she ran the tips of her fingers along the one inch vertical scar on her stomach.

"This is where Buffy made me bleed." She always thought. She thought of the blonde slayer and how they had met and what they had come to mean to each other. She hated Buffy and loved her too.

"Angel and I had her chained to a brick wall." Faith thought. "We were going to strip the flesh from her bones. But I also dreamed about her while in a coma. I am connected to her." Faith unfastened her belt and pulled down her pants. She tossed the dirty jeans on the bed. She stood there in only her simple cotton bra and white thong. She liked her comfort.

"Why was I so angry?" She thought. "Buffy tried to be my friend, tried to offer me a world to live in. All I did was tear it apart." She felt the weight of all her years of loneliness come crashing down upon her. Her emotions turned over and over and back and forth like a wild animal looking for something. She felt moisture in her eyes. She was crying.

"What's wrong with me?" Faith thought. Her thoughts were broken by the sound of the door opening. She looked over to see Xander walk in. He stood there for a moment in shock. There was an electric spark between them. Xander struggled to come up with a lie to say how sorry he was to intrude on her. But he knew the truth. Faith took his breath away.

She walked up to him and placed her arms around him. Faith laid her head on Xander's chest.

"I'm sorry." She said. She remembered the night she almost killed him. "I'm sorry." She said as she looked up at him. Xander returned her grasp. Her body was firm and warm. Her breasts covered the beating of his heart. Xander could feel himself becoming aroused. Faith did as well. Her body was flushed with heat. For some reason she said the strangest thing.

"We can start our own hive." She said. Faith and Buffy were still connected.

Robin watched the vampire. He had let Spike walk ahead of him as they explored the abandoned monastery. He didn't trust him. Who cared if he had a soul? This was the beast that destroyed his life. His kind had forced his mother to become a monster hunter. This was the thing that had killed the first person he had ever loved.

"What the hell happened here?" Spike said. "Looks like they met something bigger and badder than themselves." Around Spike the bodies of Bringers lay by the dozen. Some of them looked hacked to pieces, some had a huge hole in the center of their chest as if monster jaws had punched into them. Others simply looked _brunt_.

"A right mess this is." He said.

"Spike!" Robin screamed from the next room. Spike stepped over the bodies on his way to Robin. What he saw there made even him grasp. Caleb, the bible quoting freak who was fed directly the power of the First, was burned directly into the wall above the alter. Something had lifted him up and slammed him into the cinder block wall. The power of it had fused his bones into the wall itself.

"You think this was Buffy's work?" Spike asked.

"This is beyond the Slayer." Robin answered. "Giles said to call her Hive so that we understand that Buffy is no more." "Just like my mother." Robin thought. He held back his anger. He and his Predator friend would pick the right time to strike.

"What do…" Robin was saying.

"I killed your mother because I wanted to." Spike said suddenly. He stood facing Robin. He wanted to get everything out in the open. Spike was well over a hundred years old. He never forgot a face or a _smell_. He knew there was something familiar about Robin from the moment he'd met him. He had last saw Robin when he was a boy, in New York back in the seventies. He understood now why Robin was always angry at him. Though strictly speaking, he should be angrier at his mother for giving him a girl's name.

"It's the dance mate." Spike said. "Me vampire she slayer. It's what we do. She enjoyed the dance as much as I did." Spike walked up the burned corpse of Caleb. His fingers traced where bone became wall. "Don't be mad at me because I gave her what she needed." Spike turned and looked at Robin. He showed his vamp face for emphasis. "I have a part of your mother you can never touch." Robin snapped. A stake came out of nowhere and slammed into Spike.

"The plan be dammed." Robin thought. "I'm going to kill Spike now!"

The streets of Sunnydale were dark and cold. An aimless wind disturbed old sheets of newspaper. Hive walked slowly with her aliens in tow. Two monsters with oil black skin and spiky dragon tails trailed behind her. She had across her shoulder her scythe soaked in the blood of dozens of Bringers.

Hive often dreamed while she walked. The Buffy body she wore was human and had not slept in over thirty six hours. Hive accommodated. She let the Buffy body make its sad tiny dreams but Hive kept a firm control of the flesh she wore. She saw a couple walking up ahead. She was amazed that anybody had the sheer nerve to be out and about in Sunnydale after dark. Hive sent her aliens after them. There was screams. The aliens dragged the two humans back to her for inspection. She wouldn't stand to have her babies hatch out of inferior cattle. Hive was ready to settle down. She was following her screaming instincts. She looked at the pitiful crying couple eyes wide without emotion. She was about to make her decision when she felt something familiar move across the edges of her mind.

Hive saw a chalk white face trimmed in blood red lines. Long minutes passed while she rifled through billions of years of memories for the source of that face. When she had it her eyes dilated.

"They wouldn't dare!" She said to herself. Hive knew that particular sorcerer. He was used by the senior partners as the gatekeeper of the Deeper Well.

They wouldn't dare!" Hive was furious. The humans were hers. She would not have her hive sullied by the ancient demons known as the Old Ones. She invoked her magics. A portal appeared. She took her aliens with her. In the deep recesses of the Deeper Well she waited for the Red Man. She would stop the Old Ones from rising or die trying.


	8. Chapter 8

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Hive stood upon the bridge that spanned the chasm that was the Deeper Well. The bridge was old wooden and rickety. It was nothing more than wooden planks held together by frayed rope that looked thousands of years old. She left her aliens behind on the shore of the underground cavern. She was afraid the bridge would not support their weight.

Hive walked to the center of the bridge and looked down. Beneath her were thousands, no hundreds of thousands of stone, wood and metal caskets that spiraled downward into the darkness of the Earth.

"In the beginning the Earth was not a paradise but a hell dimension. " Hive said repeating what Giles had told her years ago. "Creatures not spawn of nature, the Old Ones, warred among themselves as easily we breathed. When they died, their essence persisted outside of time, immune to decay or corruption waiting for a day of resurrection. The physical remains of these creatures were kept in a prison called, "The Deeper Well" hidden beneath the Earth." Hive understood the words now and they did little to portray the sheer scale of it.

The race memories of alien showed her what the Old Ones really were. They were horrifying and beautiful and evil and glorious all at the same time. Knowing an Old One was like knowing the sun. The knowledge of them would incinerate you alive. Hive stared down into the endless darkness of the deadland. She squatted as her eyes searched for one coffin in particular. When she found it her eyes dilated.

"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?" asked the Willow within. Hive smiled to herself. She enjoyed Willow's flights of blind panic. They were funny.

"The senile partners are afraid." Hive said to her herself. "This is a bone head panic move of the highest order. My memories reveal to me a very short list of things that could have caused this. Chief among them is the Yaujta battle fleet."

"But…" said Willow.

"I need a general for my army." Hive's tone was flat. Willow could tell she had already made up her mind. Hive squatted on the bridge for long moments. She was listing for the very specific cadence of the ritual of resurrection. She heard it. The lost sound came to her as softly as the voice of a butterfly. The Red Man must be miles deep.

"Buffy, I gave you the joining spell to make you strong, so that you would survive your encounter with the blood zombie. It's not for this!" Willow said.

"This is exactly why the Dark Men invoked the Slayer." Hive said. "I was built to oppress demons. I am the law!" Hive grabbed her scythe and jumped. Her aliens followed.

He had the bones arranged in the ancient pattern. The Red Man chanted the old words of the elder language. He had selected this one coffin for a very particular reason. When the others were awakened they would need someone to lead them, to guide them and if necessary bully them into submission. The Senior Partners wanted a general to lead the Old Ones into battle. The stone coffin before him was made from a rare rock carved from a forgotten pit millions of years ago. It was crowned in gaudy jewels befitting royalty. The Red Man knew that the essence held in the ark was the monarch of the daemon age.

"Inno-ta-ra=SHE, Inno-ta-ra=SHE, Inno-ta-ra=SHE" he chanted words over and over again. His right hand hovered above a blood stained machete. He grabbed it, turned and sliced the air where Hive had been only a moment ago. She slammed into the scaffold. Shockwaves rippled up the length of the steel cables. Hive flexed. She drove an elbow into the spine of the Red Man. She had landed behind him. The Red Man stumbled forward. Hive flipped her scythe. She brought the edge of the blade up. The Red Man glittered. He was behind her. His machete came down. The first alien slammed into him with enough force to crush bone. The second one hit the platform a moment later. The stone coffin rocked back and forth on the platform.

The Red Man was amazed. He had heard stories of the children of the shadow. He never dreamed he would meet one. The alien lifted its head. It opened its first mouth. Dagger sharp silicon teeth prepared to tear into warm flesh. The hands of the Red Man began to glow. He knew he had only moments to live.

Hive flicked commands at the second alien. She turned the pointed end of the scythe towards the Red Man and leapt. Fire exploded from his hands. The alien was consumed. Acid splashed everywhere. The Red Man screamed as he face melted. His screams were cut short as Hive landed on top of him. She cut his head off with one stroke.

The second alien was following her commands. The stone top of the coffin was pushed to the side. Whatever essence it one held had already possessed the child of the shadow. Hive stood over it as it changed. A child of Earth would be able to fight the infection for hours or days even but the children of the shadow where build for this. The alien was transforming right before her eyes. Its pure black color acquired a deep blue sheen. Faint red lines appeared across its ebony form. Hive could feel the power of the Old One filling the alien form.

It rose in its new body. Illyria, warrior and sovereign of the demon age, had returned. Hive still had her telepathic connection to the aliens. Illyria and Hive quickly agreed. They would wait here until the Yaujta fleet arrived. Hive would open a portal and Illyria would lead the aliens into glorious combat.


	9. Chapter 9

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Faith set up in bed.

"What the hell was that?" she said. Faith was in Buffy's bed. Sweat soaked sheets barely covered her naked form. She looked around the room. It looked like it had been hit by a bomb. Tables and chairs were overturned. Some of the crucifixes were torn from the wall.

"Oh my God." She said. Faith dropped her head into her hands. She looked over. Xander lay besides her snoring loudly.

"Someone kill me now." She said. Something disturbed Xander's sleep. He tossed. A hand slapped against her sweaty pink thigh.

""What the hell is wrong with me?" She asked herself. Faith felt terrible. She's sworn to herself never to turn to the dark side again. She hated to think what sleeping with Xander implied. She knew what she had to do but as she looked down at him she understood that in his own way Xander had feeling s for her, real emotional girly type feeling not just tight pants feelings. Faith leaned over and whispered in Xander's ear.

"Don't love me. I'm no good for you." She said.

"I couldn't agree more." said Willow. Faith jerked her head up. Sitting across the bed from her was Willow Rosenberg.

"You look weird." said Faith.

"I'm dead. "Willow said. "Buffy tore me apart with her teeth and fingernails." The grim shade of Willow sat there with strips of flesh hanging off of her.

Faith smiled. "I know who you are." She said. "You're the First, right?"

"The one and only." It said."

"Why are you here?" Faith asked. "From what I understand, Buffy pretty much cleaned your clock."

"That thing wearing Buffy's body killed my bringers and Caleb. But I have thousands more where that came from."

"So, you're pretty useless right now? All you can do is point and tease?" Faith mocked the eternal source of evil.

"I'm here to make a deal." It said.

"Whaaaaa?" Faith was dumbfounded.

"In a day or so some real bad asses are going to storm trooper this planet. The magics of my creation bind me to this place. I'm stuck here!" The First said. "The magics do not care if this world is an expanding ball of plasma. I will be still be bound to it. Do you know how boring it is to have to wait a billion years or so for the crust of the planet to cool and life to evolve, _again_?"

"What do you want?" Faith asked. "And if I was stupid enough to care, how can I trust you?"

"An act of good faith huh?" Willow said as she leaned in. "Ok, how about this. A strike team from the Senior Partners is on their way over right now." The first pretended to look at a watch it didn't wear. "They should be here in about few minutes. If you survive, we'll talk." The First disappeared. Downstairs Caridad screamed. Faith jumped out of the bed without thinking. She was still only dressed in a bra and thong. She grabbed her knife. She was through the door and down the stairs in a moment.

There were two monsters in the room. One was over nine feet tall with brunt brown skin and a face made of bone with a mouth full of shark like teeth. The other looked like a huge dog. It stood over five feet at the shoulder. The first creature had Caridad by the neck. Faith made a calculation. She rushed the monster. It swiped at her. Faith ducked the razor sharp claws and jammed her knife into the arm of the beast that held Caridad. The monster dropped the girl.

Faith didn't let up. She leaned in and punched it once on the left side of its face. As it yowled, she pulled the knife out of its arm and slid the blade across the pulsing artery under its neck. Green white blood splashed against her. She slammed her weight into the monster and kept her weight on its windpipe until it stopped moving.

She heard growling behind her. Faith stood and turned facing the monster behind her. Caridad had scrambled off somewhere. Manning was on the floor. His clothing looked torn. He was lying in a pool of blood. The creature scratched the wooden floor with its claws. It growled at her. Faith growled back. Something passed between the monster and the slayer. There was a moment of recognition between the two beasts. This was the dance, the sacred movement. Death was her gift, her art. She made it with her hands. She screamed as she lunged across the room. The monster roared as it lunged towards Faith.

Her toes barely touched the ground as she danced in the air. The monster rushed pass her as Faith floated above it. Her arm slipped around its neck. She was on top of it. Her long legs held it firmly. The monster turned and slammed her against the wall. She still held it between her legs as the creature buckled. Faith squeezed the monster to her breast and stabbed it with her knife. It shook. She stabbed it again. Flowers of blood bloomed in the air. She stabbed it again and again each time penetrating deep into its body. The monster quivered. It made a strange noise. Faith joined it in the blood cry. When it was dead she pushed it to the side.

Xander had made it down the stairs. The living room was a scene of utter devastation. In the middle of it stood Faith, nearly naked and covered in the blood of monsters. He could smell her from across the room.

It took her a moment to remember how to be human. When she did, the wildness went out of her eyes.

"You can never love me." She said to Xander. He understood.


	10. Chapter 10

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Spike pushed Robin off of him. The stake had slammed into him but it missed his heart. Still, it hurt like hell. Spike growled. He was still in vamp face. His fangs showed. Robin didn't wait. He leaned in with a right cross against the side of Spike's head knocking the vampire backwards. Robin reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out the weapon the predator had given him. It was a small cylinder of silver colored metal. Robin flipped the micro switch on the side of it as the predator had taught him. The liquid metal shot up and formed around his arm. This was the latest model hunting glove. It contained within it an arsenal of weapons. Spike noticed the glove. His pupils dilated. Robin lifted his fist towards Spike and fired. Purple light shot out. Spike was a fraction of a second too slow. A hole was blown in the bottom part of his jacket.

"That's cheating mate." Spike said.

"All's fair in love and war." Robin responded. The metal glove shifted in shape. From the center of his hand grew a meter long shaft of razor sharp metal. Robin shifted position. As he moved, Spike noticed a nearly invisible shape in the shadows.

"You've been making friends." Spike said. "Can you trust them?"

"The Yautja respect the blood hunt." Robin said. "They don't give a damn about soulless murdering demons!" Robin stabbed forward. Spike slapped the weapon sideways as he dodged it. Metal bounced off the wall. Gold sparks flew into the air illuminating memories that been lost in the dark spaces of Spike's mind.

He remembered Robin's mother. He could've danced with that one all night. He remembered fighting with her on a dark rainy New York night. He remembered seeing Robin hiding behind a park bench. But now he remembered something else. He remembered glimpsing the faint outline of _something_ in the shadows.

"They stood by and let your mother die." Spike said to him. Robin didn't care. The liquid metal glove changed again. This time it was a blade. Robin brought it down. The edges of it sliced across Spike's face. Spike roared in the pain. In a blink of an eye he stepped forward and grabbed his metal coated arm and with the other fist shattered the bones in Robin's hand. The man screamed. Spike felt the blood lust coming on. In two quick jabs Spike broke his knee caps. Robin lay curled in a ball on the floor.

The Predator appeared. It dropped it shields and walked out of darkness. It stood over Robin directly before Spike. The Predator looked to the left then the right. It took Spike a moment to understand what the Predator really wanted from Robin.

"They can't see me!" He thought. He had seen the Yautja hunt other vampires. It was just that they can't see _him_. He didn't know if it was the magics of his soul that was protecting him. He had only one decision to make. Spike had to decide if he was going to kill Robin or let him live.

"Giles?" Asked Faith, "What the hell are you people up to?" Faith stood in the living room with her hands on her hips. She had taken a shower to wash the blood of monsters off of her. Faith wore a white cotton blouse with a pair of faded jeans. She watched Giles clean his glasses. He did that when he was nervous. That was not a good sign.

"Buffy is MIA. Willow is _dead_! Monsters are showing up out of nowhere. I'll say it again, what the hell are you people up to?" Faith brow beat everyone in the room.

"Hey, lay off Mr. Giles." Caridad said. She hated that Faith was so pushy. Faith looked at her. She walked up to Caridad, as she had done many times to the women in her prison. Faith put her face close to Caridad. Their noses were almost touching.

"You crippled maggot. I just killed two demons with my bare hands. Do you really want to piss me off?" Faith let the question hang in the air for a moment. Caridad lowered her head.

"Yeah, I thought so. Giles?" Faith said impatiently as she turned back to the watcher.

Giles looked sheepish. He was the first to admit that the last few days were not his best effort. He wasn't equipped to deal with rampaging aliens.

"I've ordered a replacement bust through the coven but it will take a few days to get here. I'm hoping to reverse the spell that made Buffy an Alien queen. I have no idea how she managed to ignite the joining spell. I've only seen Willow do that."

"And Willow's dead." Faith said sarcastically. Something occurred to her. "How did Willow die?"

"Buffy ate her. Well, a large chunk of her. Technically, she bled to death." Giles said.

"What do we know about these Aliens?" Xander asked. He remembered that night an alien ship had fallen out of the sky and crashed in the woods. The next day mutilated bodies started showing up all over Sunnydale.

"They are a viscous species that reproduce by rape. They are inorganic. They are territorial and…"

"They are old." Faith injected. She recalled the briefing from Wolfram and Hart. "They are called the children of the Old Ones. They're an artificial life form invented by the Old Ones. They have the ability to store the blood memories of everyone they've killed." It took Giles a moment to put everything together.

"Buffy has Willow's memories!" Giles said.

"That's possible." Faith agreed.

"The memories of Willow activated the joining spell!" Giles finally understood what it was he had seen when Buffy burned the zombie Predator to death with a wave of her hand. "She can't' go on like that for very long. " Faith and Giles looked at each other for a moment.

"Scary Rasta Momma?" Faith said. She had heard the story second hand from Buffy about her brief use of the joining spell three years ago.

"The source of the slayers power was offended by her brief connection. Who knows what it's going to do now with Buffy running so hot for so long."

"As far as we know, the Aliens don't dream." Said Giles.

"As far as we know…" Faith echoed. Faith looked around the room again. She made up her mind in a split second.

"I'm in charge now." She said loud enough for everyone to hear. A few of the Potentials stared at her. "No questions, no back talk, no bullshit. Buffy's war with the First is over. It's not important now. Caridad started to say something.

"Time for the Potentials to go!" There were gasps in the room. "You don't have to go back to your homes but you've got to get the hell up out of here. I'm not going to babysit you." The Potentials looked hurt. "There is a fleet of warriors headed this way. They have a planet killer in their arsenal. Speeches about empowerment won't help us here."

"What gives you the right?" Caridad asked. She was angry.

"Command decision. I am the slayer. This is my war. I'll fight it my way." Faith said. "You are useless to me. This is going to get ugly beyond belief. Understand?" After a moment Caridad slowly nodded her head. Faith had put her foot down.

There were voices in the dark. Hive and Illyria talked. The alien possessed by Illyria stared into the abyss of the deeper well with eyes that were not eyes.

"So this is what we have become." Illyria said wishfully. "This world was mine once. I was its god and its executioner. I was the agony and the ecstasy of death. I lived seven lives at once, I made the moon red." Hive remembered. Over a billion years of memories burned within her.

"Why did you make us?" Hive asked.

The Alien, with black silicon skin, crystal teeth and the essence of a resurrected Old One turned to look at her.

"You look like one of them." Illyria said in her mind. "But your magics have failed to hide what you truly are slayer. I know your true roots, your true beginnings. I know the thing they made you from."

"I see." Hive said. Still, the need for answers burned within her.

"Why did you make us?" Hive asked again.

"We knew we were dying. After hundreds of millions of years we knew that not even we could avoid death." Hive nodded she understood.

"We knew a day of resurrection would come. We knew eons would pass and that the warm ooze that stank and looked pretty as in glowed at night would come to spread among the stars. So we took it upon ourselves to invent a way to document the history of life in the galaxy." Illyria queried the mind of Hive for a modern term that fit. She found one.

"After waking from a long sleep, we would need to know the history of the world around us. These beings you call xenomorphs they are newspapers."

**The Palomar Observatory:**

The phat beats of Jay-Z blared out of cheap speakers that looked odd against a spate of million dollar, state of the art equipment. The grad student was gathering a set of observations concerning the distribution of supernova in other galaxies. She was trying to verify that dark energy was tearing the universe apart. So far everything she had seen supported her hypothesis.

Over the thousands of hours she had watched the screen. Nothing interesting had happened. Tonight would be different. There was a brief explosion of white light at the center of the screen.

"Huh?" She said. "What was that?" She pulled herself closer to the screen. There were six more explosions of light.

"No way!" She desperately scrambled to hit the record button on the DVR and to activate the light counter on the computer. The computer spat back answers that made no sense. "Those lights are inside the solar system!" Balls of light filled the screen like popcorn. Her computers had counted over two hundred explosions so far. The screen was a solid white. She dialed down the magnification.

"Now if only I can…" The screen began to fill up again with points of solid white. She checked the computer. Her jaw dropped. There were over twenty thousand points of light in the outer solar system _and they were moving_. The scout fleet had arrived.

A ship appeared on the screen. Thought Hunter Kairs Null watched the ship hover at the edge of the sensor net . She had been assigned by her master to lead the scout fleet into the solar system of the Senior Partners. She had taken a small group of hunters with her. The main body of the fleet, over one million ships, would be arriving soon. The ship at the edge of her sensor net jumped. She watched it with amazement. The ship was old. It was preindustrial. She watched the light spectrum from its ancient fusion drives. The ship design had not been seen in nearly ten thousand years. Before she could order the fleet into stealth mode there came a beeping from the communications panel. She pressed a button, an image appeared on the screen. It was Barik Null.

Barik made a simple statement. "I claim my score." The fleet was shocked. Among the Yaujta score was everything. It determined where you would live, how you would live and even if you would be permitted to have children. The Yaujta constantly hunted to improve their score. Each hunter was hardwired to transmit their hunt back to the main repository. All a hunter had to do was speak the words "I claim my score'' to take his points.

Barik Null had been on the long hunt for ten thousand years. He would be unleashed every thousand years to hunt the slayer. Every time he succeeded. A slayer was worth a hundred million points. Barik Null had over one trillion points. His wealth permitted a fleet to be leased from the emperor.

Kairs was his distant descendant. She verified the biometric data from the ship. The machines told her it was Barik Null. This was bad. The moment the score was transferred to Barik command of the fleet would be his.

The First was amused. The Yaujta were easy to fool. If he could show himself to Caleb as Buffy wearing clothing it was a simple matter to show himself to the Yaujta as a very specific radar pattern.

"I was so close." The First thought. "After Buffy damaged the slayer line she began to leak my energy back into the universe since I am the thing that was used to create the slayer line in the first place. And now that Buffy is running the joining spell full time all of my energy is pouring through her. I can finally manifest my true self. I can enter the world with my full powers and make the stars themselves bleed."


	11. Chapter 11

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Mortok took the news with a grain of salt. Thought Hunter Kairs had informed him of the return of Barik Null. He didn't believe it. The dead stayed dead, except here where the Senior Partners ruled. Here all decency was swept aside. The dead walked, the dead hunted. Mortok reviewed the video of the death of his honored ancestor. He watched the blood zombie Barik Null burn at the hands of the Buffy Summers.

Something moved in front of him. Crystal teeth wrapped in black lunged at him. Mortok flipped his plasma rifle into position and fired. The Alien was blown backwards. Chunks of flesh littered the landscape. Robots sprayed foam to keep the blood of the monster from burning through the floor of the world. Mortok holstered the smothering gun. He keyed his communications officer.

"Stop the transfer." He said. The thing that pretended to be Barik Null had demanded full payment of his one trillion point score. With such a score Barik would have control of the fleet, the planet killer and the asteroid as flagship Mortok commanded. It would leave the family bankrupted.

"Master, it is done." The communications officer said. "A formal protest has been entered by the family. " Mortok considered his options.

"Time until we arrive in the solar system of the Senior Partners?" He asked. The communications officer told him. It was a period of less than fifteen hours. Mortok tapped his face mask changing channels. He had a direct connection to the other kings of the fleet. Their conclusion was unanimous. They had all agreed to bring the planet killer online. Across the galaxy, robots herded moons and other rocks into position near the event horizon of the black hole that was the end of everything. A programmable wormhole floated a few kilometers above the singularity. If they gave the word, the kings could rain hell fire down from the sky. At the end of the call the game masters unleashed two xenomorphs. Mortok took up the hunt.

Kairs Null opened a communications channel to the thing that pretended to be her ancestor. She uttered a profane curse to the creature that involved the names of several gods taken in vain and a impossible sexual position. She made it quite clear that they would not be turning over Barik Null's trillion point score. To emphasize that fact, she ordered twenty ships to open fire on the stranger. Collimated beams of energy slammed into the space their computers told them Barik Null laid.

The First laughed to himself. He melted his illusion. With senses not of this world he began to look for a way to respond the hunters.

"It can't see me." Spike thought to himself. The Predator stood before him. His facemask scanned the room in the entire electromagnetic pattern. This was the only reason they needed the human. The predator assigned to tracking Spike could no longer see him. The Predator turned and walked away.

Spike considered his options.

Minutes ago Robin had tried to kill him. Robin didn't understand the game, the dance, the exchange between slayer and vampire. Vampires hunted humans, Slayers hunted vampires. It was the scheme of things. Spike watched Robin curled up on the floor like a fetus and understood the source of Robin's pain and his motivations. He had killed Robin's mother when he was just a kid.

"The difference between you and me, mate." Spike thought. "I knew my mother loved me." That was the moment he made up his mind. Spike grabbed the metal weapon from Robin's hand. In a flash he was across the room. Spike drove the tip of the blade deep into the Predators back. The creature roared. It turned and knocked Spike across the room. His faceplate adapted. The lenses of his facemask were actually a quantum computer designed for spectrum analysis. The faceplate adapted. It found a way to see Spike. The Predator clinched his fist. A meter of razor sharp claws appeared.

"I've stepped into it now." Spike thought as he stood. He roared as he lunged into battle.

In the cold darkness it sat like a spider in the center of a web of electric and magnetic fields. The planet Jupiter was a bomb that had failed to explode. It was on its way to becoming a star long before the Old Ones walked the Earth. It failed on its way to becoming a fury of the night. Still, it was an object of power. The First knew its secrets. The First searched for the weapon planted here billions of years ago. He found it easily. It was a small moon that filled the Jovian space with an untold number of sulphur atoms. The moon named IO had been busy filling the Jovian space with billions and billions of watts of power stored in the sulphur pumped from its molten core. Its torn flesh filled the darkness. The First would use it to illuminate the night. The IO flux tube, as it was called, held within it over a thousand billion watts of power. The First transformed itself into a point of light shining at a very specific wavelength. The sulphur molecules changed states as they absorbed the light of the First. The powerful magnetic fields of the IO flux tube kept the plasma from escaping. The atoms absorbed all the energy they could hold. When they were full they fell to a lower state. A billion years of stored energy broke free. The twenty thousand ship Yautja scout fleet was blown away by a terawatt laser triggered by the First.


	12. Chapter 12

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Mortok meditated on the meaning of the cursed place. The solar system of the Senior Partners was the place where monsters dwelled. Nowhere else in the galaxy was there such a concentration of evil. He knew the Earth was a nexus, a connecting point between this world and the next but he was astounded at the sheer scale of it. For over ten thousand years they had watched the hunt of Barik Null and they had come to understand the sheer hellscape that was Earth. Not only was there devils in the form of the Senior Partners but there were other monsters.

There were vampires, werewolves, slayers and other nameless things never hunted or seen by the Yautja before they knew of this world. They had stationed agents here to ensure that Barik Null was allowed to hunt with honor. What they found out shocked them to the core. The Earth was a cursed place. It was a source of horror. The Yautja built the planet killer specifically for Earth and they cut the number of hunting licenses for Earth to nearly zero. Mortok took a moment to grieve for the thousands dead in the scout fleet. They were the first blood spilled in the cursed place. He still had over a million ships left in his fleet. He wondered if they would be enough.

When his grieving was done he signaled the game masters. They released a very accurate clone of a T-Rex. The ground shook as he pulled out the long blade of his favorite knife.

Sparks flew in the air as a metal sliced into the wall. Spike dipped under the arc of the Predator's strike as he leaned forward with a right cross to the hunter's jaw. The predator staggered backwards. Spike leapt upon him. Fangs tried to stab into his neck. The Predator blocked Spike with his left arm. He took his metal spear and stabbed deep into Spike's ribcage. Metal penetrated the space between the bones of his ribcage and punched into his dead lungs. Spike screamed and sunk his teeth into the arm of the predator. He found a vein. Rich red blood filled his mouth. The power of the Predator exploded into his flesh. The hunter yanked the blade out of him. Spike didn't care. He vibrated with a new found energy. Spike punched a weak spot at the sternum of the predator. He heard bone crack. He hit that spot again and again. When the predator had doubled over in pain, Spike brought his elbow down on the back of the Predators neck. It went down. When it did, Spike kicked it in the face.

"That's how we do it in Sunnydale, mate." He said. He looked at Robin curled up on the ground and made a decision. Spike pulled out his cell phone and called Giles for a pickup. Afterwards, he lit up a cigarette, cleared away a bunch of dead bringers and found a place to sit. For some reason he thought about Buffy and how he had come to love her and the monster she had become. He knew that his time with the slayer was not over yet. Spike smiled.

"It what?" Said Faith. She and Giles were in a used U-Haul moving van. They were on their way to pick up Spike and Robin and a nearly dead predator. Hours ago something had exploded against the house. It left a huge hole in the roof and a corner of the building. They thought they were under attack until he was able to examine the shrapnel of the object that hit them. When he understood what it was he rolled his eyes and said "Oh dear." It was the replacement Janus bust from the coven outside of London. It was shattered into a million pieces. As he drove, he was trying to explain to Faith why.

"The fundamental problem of teleportation is that the Earth is round. Different parts of it rotate at different speeds." Faith looked at him dumbly.

"The coven teleported the Janus bust to Sunnydale and forgot to adjust. The house collided with the bust at about a hundred miles an hour.

"Oh." Faith said. "What does this mean?" She asked.

"It means we're screwed." Giles said. Faith looked at him. Giles was getting manly in his old age.

"Can't we…" Something black with spikes and dragon tail ran across the road. "Stop!" Yelled Faith. Giles slammed on the brakes. The truck skidded a few feet.

"I think I see one of Buffy's babies." Faith said as she climbed out of the truck. She was itching for a fight. Since this whole thing started the typical Sunnydale nastiness had all but disappeared. Faith followed the alien into an alley. She stepped slowly into its dark cool space. She could feel _something _moving in the darkness.

"C'mon baby. Mama wants you." Faith muttered. She tracked the creature by sound. She heard razor sharp claws against metal. The slayer in her screamed. The Alien jumped. Faith lit up the alley with the twin booms of a sawed off shot gun. The yellow white flash revealed a blind monster with silicon teeth and a hard black shell. Sparks exploded from the alien. Buckshot ricocheted all around her. The Alien lunged at Faith.

Without hesitating Faith lunged towards the monster. They collided with a grunt. Faith grabbed the alien by the neck. Her other hand grabbed its arm before it had a chance to strike. She saw its black pointed tail rise into the air. Faith pushed the monster back. It flipped over then jumped to its feet.

Lighting struck the alley. Something like a man made of fire and smoke appeared. A silver sword flashed out of nowhere cutting the alien in half. Acid blood splashed on the being that was a pillar of fire and smoke. The alien hissed as it died. The smoke became solid.

Dracula walked up to Faith. He looked at her a moment. His dark eyes roamed over her body. His bass voice made her skin vibrate. Her nipples became hard.

"Come little dragon." Dracula said to her. "We must find Buffy before it is too late."

"Yes, Master." She said. Faith turned. Dracula followed her back to the truck.


	13. Chapter 13

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Out of the darkness they came. Over one million Yautja battleships dropped out of hyperspace and into the bizarre solar system of the Senior Partners. Every military commander knew the necessity of creating a staging area for large operations. The staging area had to be in a safe, stable place where supplies could be positioned to be pushed out to the troops or a place where wounded troops could return for medical help. The home office of the Senior Partners lay behind a huge asteroid belt. This meant that the staging area of any large fleet would have to be outside the asteroid belt near Jupiter to avoid the twin barriers of the Sun and the flying mountains that moved in the dark.

For hours, ships of the fleet of the children of Barik Null popped into existence around Jupiter. Over one hundred thousand command carriers spread out in orbit around the gas giant. They controlled over five hundred thousand assault cruisers and an untold number of troop carriers. The smallest of their ship carried a hundred hunters, the largest over ten thousand. There was well over five hundred million Yautja hunting for the senior partners. The flagship "Aerial Strike" was the last to arrive. It took up orbit ten degrees above the plane of the ecliptic. All the planets of this system as well as the fleet were beneath his feet.

Mortok made adjustments on the golden suit he wore. What he wore was special. It was the outfit worn by the first emperor. It was a gift to the four kings by the current ruler of the home world. This suit had the power to jump dimensions. No matter where they hid, Mortok would find the senior partners and make them pay for defiling the sanctity of the hunt. He tapped his facemask twice. Fleet admiral Andorra Null appeared. He could tell she was busy deploying the fleet around Jupiter. He didn't care. The fleet existed to serve him. The nearly half a billion Yautja here were the personal property of his family.

"Yes." She said as she turned to the monitor.

"I will begin my hunt." He said " I …" His voiced broke off. Something black and swirling appeared in midair. A portal opened hundreds of feet above him. He could see multiple portals opening along the twenty mile long length of the asteroid. Thousands of aliens began to pour out of the portals. The same was happening on every ship in the fleet. He saw something fast and black attack Andorra. Her blood splattered across the monitor.

"The Plague!" Mortok thought. That's what they called the Xenomorph species. Mortok whipped his plasma rife out and fired a series of charges. Blue white fire lit up the landscape. Smoke and blood filled the air. Mortok made it to the elevator that lead to the airlock. He was running for his ship. Nothing would stop him from hunting the Senior Partners. The elevator stopped. Silver doors opened. Mortok moved forward towards his ship. Body black as night, teeth sharp as knifes, the shadow of the Old Ones unfurled itself from the ceiling. It pulled itself to full height. The alien stood before Mortok. Its skin was tinged in blue and black. Mortok fired.

The power of Illyria exploded outward. This alien held within it the essence of the lord of the primordium. The plasma bolt splashed across the energy shield. The walls were singed with orange flames. He didn't hesitate. Mortok grabbed three grenades from his leg pocket and threw them past the alien. He turned sideways and shielded his face. The grenades exploded behind the alien. Air pressure blew it into space. Long black fingers grabbed at the ragged edges of torn metal. The alien swept one arm before it. A pulse of energy swept over the corridor. Mortok looked at both his local and system clock. There was a three second difference.

The Alien popped up behind Mortok. Black jaws stabbed at his head. A sensor on the back of his suit detected movement. High powered light weight batteries came online. A megawatt pulse laser blinked once. Blinding white light flickered off the alien skin. Mortok did a half turn. The alien was unharmed. It grabbed him by the neck and threw him down the hallway. Mortok twisted in the air and landed on his feet. He came to a quick conclusion. A wrist panel opened on his arm. He pressed a series of buttons and closed the panel. Mortok grabbed the metal spear from his waist. He jerked it. The spear expanded into its full nine foot length. He pointed it towards the alien and charged.

He had to time it just right.

Mortok ran towards the alien spear first. The alien opened its mouth Drool leaked down its cheek. The tip of the spear was only inches away from stabbing into it. The alien grabbed the spear as Mortok hoped it world. Mortok dropped to the floor. He grunted as he yanked the spear forward. The alien went up in the air.

His ship appeared in the darkness at the end of the hallway. It was turned backwards. It's huge fusion engines sprang to life according to his programming. Mortok took one last look at the alien as he tapped the chest controls on his golden suit. Ancient circuits sprang to life. Mortok was teleported to safety as exhaust plasma heated to well over one million degrees filled the corridor incinerating everything. Mortok ship completed its programming. It turned and set course to the other side of the asteroid to rendezvous with its master.

When the molten metal had become cool enough, the alien that held the power of Illyria broke free and continued its hunt for Mortok null.


	14. Chapter 14

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

A burst of .75 caliber shells blasted the bridge of the command ship. Metal desktops exploded. Delicate equipment fractured sending brightly colored pieces of plastic ricocheting off the ship's walls. Fleet admiral Andorra sliced through the alien with a curved blade sending flecks of acid blood backwards. She had been trained in hand to hand combat since she was a child. Her family demanded it and she had no choice. The mantle of leadership had been passed to her. It didn't help that she had four older brothers. It was their favorite sport to hunt her and her favorite sport to hunt them back.

A second mouth open and the alien punched into Andorra's shoulder. Her blood splattered across the monitor. She cursed as she activated her wrist blade and brought it up into the under jaw of the alien. Andorra turned her head as she pushed the body away. She looked around the bridge. Her crew was engaged in vicious hand to hand combat. She made a command decision. Her hand slapped down on an emergency release button. Every wall on the ship collapsed into a compartment under the floor. The Yautja used modular construction techniques on their ships. The walls of their ships was a flexible metal that could be lowered into the floor. This was the key for rapid deployment or loading of supplies. The ship's air pressure blew nearly everyone into space. Anyone not in full battle armor was killed almost instantly. She didn't care. Hunting with her brothers had taught to be ruthless.

A few of her top officers survived. They rallied around her. Above their heads they could see the swirling wreckage of hundreds of thousands of Yautja ships and millions of bodies floating as black dots against the orange, white and red bands of Jupiter. She was furious. Her fleet was nearly in ruins. Her blood dripped inside of her suit. Andorra howled her rage like a banshee. She and her officers agreed to get their score as high as possible. They set after any surviving aliens.

She found two of the creatures crawling along the exposed ribs of the ship several hundred feet away. She focused on them as much as she could. In her earpiece she could hear the screams of family dying around her. She understood that this was the Grand Hunt. Even a dead hunter could earn points for the family. She understood her entire fleet was infected. There were millions of points to be made here. Her plasma rifle blinked twice. Precise one inch holes appeared in the aliens. Her suit instantly transmitted the kills to the repository. Her personal score jumped by several thousand points. Andorra smiled behind her facemask. She would teach Mortok not to underestimate his little sister.

Static came across her earpiece. She turned to face the overwhelming spectacle that was Jupiter. The computers in her suit were going crazy. They were telling her impossible things. They were saying that something was changing the magnetic fields of the planet. The north and south pole of Jupiter had just disappeared. The orange and white bands of the planet rippled. A geyser of slow motion fire erupted from the planet. Like a flame thrower, weaponized liquid metallic hydrogen which made up seventy-five percent of the planet's mass sprayed itself across the Yautja fleet. It was pumped to a high energy state then ignited by the First. Her ships lit up like fireflies then brunt to ash. Some exploded, millions died.

Back lit by the yellow and red fire that spewed out from the planet Andorra saw her mother walking towards her. Her hair swayed in the nonexistent winds of deep space. Andorra watched her mother walk up to her. Her face was as smashed in and blooded as it was the day the accident took her life. A voice spoke to her over her suit radio.

"All of you will die here." The First said. "The Earth is mine. You will watch your fleet die the same way you watched her die. You will be made ashamed. Children will laugh at your name. Your family will have no score." Andorra flipped her plasma rife and fired into the First. Most of the plasma charges went through it. Parts of it trembled under her firepower. The First was becoming corporeal. It looked down at itself shocked. The First disappeared. She checked the point market. Phantoms were worth at least a hundred million points. Andorra had a new target. She was going to hunt the First.

Mortok had come to the world of the Senior Partners. It was a primitive planet. There were no orbital defenses, no planetary shields. The Senior Partners had left their skies wide open. He noted the elevated carbon dioxide levels. The Earth was well on its way to a smog covered heat death. His ship disappeared from the wavelengths of light as he engaged stealth mode. His plan was simple. He would fall down them like a wolf among sheep and kill them all. He would not commit the same error as his honored ancestor. He would not give the Senior Partners a second chance to further shame his family, His first step would be to locate the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart.

"They're here!" said Eve as she burst into Angels office. Angel and Gunn lifted their heads. They were on the speaker phone with Giles. Spike, of all people, had made contact with one of the Predators. They were debriefing it now.

"Huh?" said Angel. He had to switch his mental gears.

"The Yautja have arrived." She said as she walked up to Angel's desk. "I've seen the JPL images. There are at least a million ships around Jupiter!"

"Well, that gives us some time to negotiate." Angel said.

"Right." Eve said sarcastically. "We'll just ask the Senior Partners to come out with their hands up and surrender to a bunch of pissed off aliens!" Angel thought she was being hysterical.

"I'm sure an advanced space faring species didn't come half way across the galaxy just to…" Fire fell from the sky. Something bright and fast was spat from an invisible point half a mile above Los Angeles. The side of the Wolfram and Hart building was obliterated by a collimated beam of anti-protons. A second sun lit up the city. Thousands of structures were damaged out to a radius of twenty miles. Everything to the horizon was seared with a hellish radiation. Pieces of the building was scattered for miles. Satellites caught the image from orbit. Angel looked out of the torn edges of the building past the shielding erected by the corporate witches.

"OK, this just got serious." He said.


	15. Chapter 15

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Buffy was black. The Janus spell was starting to give her the physical aspects of the Alien. Her skin was now as hard as diamond. She ran her fingertips along the edge of her breast. Gone was the soft pink girl. She now wore a warm hard shell. Hive looked through the portal that showed her the war she was fighting. Through the portal she could see thousands of ships aflame and in ruin. Hours ago an alien with the powers of an Old One had lead hundreds of thousands of aliens into combat against the Predator fleet. Hive watched millions of her enemies die.

"You are not one of mine." A voice whispered in her mind. "I know all my children. I know all my Queens."

Hive turned her head slowly to the _other_ portal which lead to the alien home world. Her blood memories recognized the voice speaking to her.

"Mother?" Hive said.

"You are not my daughter. This is not my war." The Queen of Queens spoke in her mind. She was the Great Mother, the matriarch of the Aliens. She was the Queen that created other queens. She was the mouth of the life-force that flowed into every Alien in the universe. The Empress of the Homeworld demanded to know who was this imposter who sent her children off to die.

"I claim this world." Hive said. "I defend it." The Queen-Mother was not fooled. She held the blood memories of the galaxy within her as well.

"You are abomination." The Queen-Mother said. "You are slayer. I know the source of you." Hive knew her origins as well. She knew she was running a terrible risk being under the enjoining spell for so long. The energy of the thing used to create the slayer line was leaking back into the universe in a manner that could not be controlled. Hive could feel the Queen of Queens issue commands

"You are the avatar of the First enemy." The Queen-of-Queens said. "You are a monster." Hive understood. The matriarch closed the portal to the Homeworld. . Hive would no longer have access to them. She was now on her own. Hive turned to other concerns.

The power of the joining spell soaked every cell of her body. It burned like a white hot fire within her. The source of that power filled her head with electric dreams. It gave her visions. She saw a man with glasses and a business suit standing next to her. He had a platter of cheese. Other visions filled her sight. Monstrous voices whispered in her ears. Mixed in with the din of voices she could swear that she could hear the voice of her watcher in her head.

Dracula hesitated a moment before crossing the threshold into the Summers home. He stepped through the door without any issues. It was as he suspected. Buffy was so far gone that magic itself no longer considered her to be the proper owner of this house. He walked behind Faith. He watched the slayer. He noticed how she scanned the space around her for danger. He watched as she ran her hands over her body verifying her weapons were in place. Even under his thrall, Faith was still a slayer. He could feel the raw power radiating from her. She was like him, a creature of darkness. Her power was very near to his own.

Behind Dracula, Spike and Giles manhandled the predator into the living room. They threw it down on the couch. Spike had captured it when he had gone with Robin to spy on Caleb and the Bringers. Manning helped to bring Robin's bruised body inside.

"I know these creatures." Dracula said. "They are hunters of the flesh." Dracula looked at the Predator with blank eyes assessing the beast before him. "They kill for sport." He said. "They closer to human than they realize."

"So, they're just good-old boys with spaceships?" asked Xander. He stood next to Dracula.

"They are killers without art. They are butchers. They don't even eat what they kill." Dracula was disgusted. The predator stirred. Xander jumped.

"They hunt the lords of the darkness of this world." Dracula said. "They hunt the workers of chaos that hide behind man's laws. They're foolishness will destroy us all." It took a moment for everyone to understand what Dracula was saying.

"Wolf Ram and Hart?" said Giles. "They are hunting the Senior Partners?" He was astounded. "But what does this have to do with Buffy, or the thing Buffy has become?" Dracula pretended not to hear Giles. He walked up to the Predator and examined it closer. When his curiosity was sated he turned and answered Giles question.

"They know what vengeance is." Dracula said. "They have waited a long time for it." Giles was still puzzled. Dracula clarified. "The thing the slayer has become killed their honored ancestor. They are here to hunt the creatures that stained their family honor." Giles remembered Buffy spewing fire from the palm of her hands incinerating the blood zombie.

"That was thousands of years ago." Giles muttered. Dracula heard him.

"Vengeance is hard to kill." Dracula said. "They are beasts but they have honor." As royalty, Dracula respected what they were doing. In his time, he had slaughtered armies simply because they had slurred his name. The Senior Partners had defiled their ancestor. Blood must be paid for blood. The Predator stirred. He jerked his arm up. A three foot claw extended.

"Be still." Dracula said. The Predator hesitated a moment. The magics were slow to affect him. The Predator lowered his arm.

"Why are you here?" Dracula asked the Predator. "Why were you tracking Spike?" Spike lifted his head at the mention of his name. He didn't like Dracula very much. The vampire owed him money.

The Predator began to speak. His facemask translated.

"Hunting the slayer…warning…the end of this world." The Predators voice sounded high and wobbly.

"Explain!" Demanded Dracula.

"She fights us with the Plague." The predator said. "If we lose, we destroy everything. No enemy left behind."

"The Children of the Old Ones." Dracula muttered. Giles could swear he could see fear on Dracula's face.

"My duty…" The Predator's computers struggled to find the proper term. "job title _park ranger_. My family has maintained this hunting ground for generations. If we lose… all gone." Dracula looked at Giles. He was visibly shaken.

"We must contact Buffy." He said.

"Preaching to the choir." Giles replied.

"Faith." Dracula called out to the slayer. She slowly walked over to Dracula. She was fighting the compulsion of his thrall. Dracula placed the palm of his hand tenderly on Faith's throat. He could feel her blood pulsing in the veins of her neck. Dracula muttered the words of an old spell.

"_audite verba hæc sanguis_"

He spoke to her blood. The Slayer inside of her heard. Giles understood what Dracula was doing. He walked up to Faith and began speaking to her as if she was Buffy.

"Buffy, the power of the slayer is controlling you." said Giles. "You must stop this." Across the world, in the Deeper Well Hive heard the voice of Giles speaking to her. But her instincts were too strong. The Alien she was becoming demanded that she protect her Hive. The power of the slayer screamed at her to kill.

Blossoming plumes of orange fire filled the black void that was the portal. She saw row after row of burning ships, monstrous beams of fire power. She watched as ships the size of cities become an alien killing field. The scale of it was overwhelming. Yet, she felt centered, in control. The strange man with the cheese said "I've left some room on the plate."

"I wear the cheese. The cheese does not wear me." said Hive. She cut the connection to Giles.

"The cheese stands alone."


	16. Chapter 16

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Battles

Hunting the First

HIVE decides to move to the Wolf Ram and Hart.

Alien's revenge - Illyria heads towards Wolf Ram and Hart.


	17. Chapter 17

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Her brothers agreed. Nothing could be permitted to stop the fleet from protecting Mortok in his hunt for the senior partners. They had seen Jupiter attack them. Andorra had herself seen phantoms wearing her dead mother's face speak to her. She knew there were monsters hiding in the deeps of the gas giant. She gave the word and waited for the fires of hell to pour down on the helpless planet.

Across the galaxy there was a dilation of space. Above the accretion disk of the black hole that was the planet killer, the burning bones of worlds erupted into a star white plasma wider than the Earth. The energy of hundreds of stars flowed into the mouth of the wormhole.

"I am beyond anything you can understand." said the First to Andorra. It stood behind her. It wore the face of her mother. Andorra didn't bother looking. She knew her mother was hunting souls in the afterlife. She knew this thing behind her was a liar.

Andorra growled. Her face plate translated it as an angry noise. Hunting her brothers had taught her early in life to stay focused. She had a fleet to manage.

She said. "Flash override, all ships, rapid jump, Alpha Centuri." She had issued the command for the fleet to leave Jupiter immediately. Her crew rushed to execute her command. In the moment before the stars blurred, she turned back to look at the First. She said one thing.

"Got'cha"

Deep within Jupiter a wormhole opened in the planet's metallic hydrogen core. There was a brief moment when millions of tons of pressure attempted to flood the wormhole but failed. Star fire poured into the core of the planet. The few ship too damaged to jump saw Jupiter light up from beneath the clouds. The planet glowed with a furious yellow white light and then shattered. The First finally understood. The energies of Hive had made it too corporal. It couldn't jump from the planet fast enough. It was incinerated. The gas giant exploded. For long minuets a second star burned in the sky.

Near Alpha Centuri Andorra and her brothers waited for the adjustment to their score. After the update they knew they had enough points to use the weapon a second time. They entered in the coordinates for Earth into the targeting computer.

"The blood." Faith murmured. No one heard her. Everyone was focused on the hunter. Giles was on the phone with Angel. "The blood." Faith spoke again. Dracula heard her. He turned to Faith. She stood there struggling against the magics that held her in thrall. The memory of Willow had spoken to her. They had a plan. Faith struggled to look Dracula in the eyes. She murmured again.

"The answer is your blood." She said. Dracula furrowed his brow. What was she talking about? He remembered his time with Buffy. He had given Buffy a taste of the memories in his blood. Dracula understood. He walked over to Faith. He ran a fingernail over the pasty skin of his wrist. His blood erupted. Dracula placed his bleeding wrist against Faith's lips. She drank. Memories flowed into her and Buffy.

Hive felt her heart beating. Her breath became rapid and shallow. Something superimposed itself over the blood memories of the children of the shadow. She remembered who she was. The magics shifted. She felt a dark cloud lift from her mind. She began to remember who she was.

"Hey everybody be quiet!" said Xander. Bright urgent graphics flashed across the television set in the corner of the room. Xander turned up the volume.

"Repeat…there appears to have been a terrorist attack on the city of Los Angeles. Causality figures are expected to be in the thousands…" Xander looked back to Faith feeding on Dracula.

"Thing's just got a whole lot worst." Xander said. He remembered all the apocalypses he had helped Buffy stop. This felt different. This felt like things were spinning out of control. He walked over to the window just to make sure the world was still there. Xander looked up. He couldn't believe it. There was a second sun in the sky.

"I can tell this day is going to suck." He said.

Mortok entered the building amidst the confusion. His plan was simple. He would use the cover of their panic to sneak into the white room. From there he would activate the dimensional spanning powers of his suit to enter the space of the Senior Partners and kill them. Humans and demons rushed past him. He was invisible to their eyes. A few vampires stopped for a moment to stare. It was almost as if they could see him. The panic was too much. Even those with the sight were swept up in the mob. He was about to enter an elevator when he felt a portal open in back of him. He turned. An Alien emerged from the darkness. It was a full nine feet tall. Its black skin held an oily sheen. The skin of the alien had a slight blue coloring. It was Illyria.

Mortok swung his plasma rife into firing position. Blue white fire spat down the hallway. Illyria dodged. The plasma blasted the wall behind her punching a hole into the plaster and wiring. Illyria dug her claws into the wall and scurried towards Mortok. He fired again and hit her dead center. Plasma bounced harmlessly off of her shields. Against black skin silicon teeth opened. A second mouth appeared. Illyria leapt. Steel claws extended. Mortok drove his wrist blades into the under jaw of Illyria. The alien screamed. The force of her impact drove them backwards. His stealth shielding failed. Mortok was now visible for all to see.

Illyria rolled over. Her tail sprung into striking position. She lunged forwards and stabbed Mortok once in the shoulder. He howled in pain. Mortok flicked a blade across the alien tail. He dogged the spray of acid blood. He flicked two grenades in the air and turned away. The first exploded knocking Illyria backwards. The second was caught in mid air and tossed into the black pit of an opened portal. It exploded harmlessly in the Deeper Well. Illyria and Mortok both turned. Standing there was a pink and black female. She was half alien, half human and all slayer. Hive had entered the fray. The three warriors stared at each other a moment before they attacked.


	18. Chapter 18

The characters of the Alien and the Predator are property of 20th century Fox. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

In the flaming structure of the Wolfram and Hart building three hunters stood. Mortok locked the elevator in the open position then turned to face his two opponents. One was the Plague, an alien with a hardened shell and teeth that could punch through steel. The other looked like a mix of alien and human. Its skin was black with an oily sheen. On her head, instead of hair, were living black tendrils that withered like a nest of snakes. The hybrid looked at him and then the Plague. It was as if she was deciding who to kill first. Mortok had already made up his mind.

Hive placed her scythe in the ready position. She held the supernatural weapon with the blood red blade in front of her. Hive looked over her opponents carefully. She counted the number of steps between her and the thing she wished to kill.

"What is this?" asked Illyria. She retained her connection to Hive. She and the half breed had worked together to repulse the Predator fleet. "Why are you here?" The Alien that was Illyria asked. The telepathic bond between Illyria and Hive revealed only an outline of Hives' thoughts to her. Illyria could tell something had changed. In the mind of Hive Illyria felt something _human_.

"So now you are slayer?" asked Illyria. "Your choice has been made?"

Hive opened her palm. Fire poured out of her incinerating the alien. She flicked her scythe at the Predator. Illyria screamed as the flames enveloped her. Mortok brought up his steel claws which were shattered by the force of the scythe slamming into them. The weapon whizzed pass him and embedded itself in the wall. Hive turned to Illyria, her eyes glowed orange white with the full power of the slayer.

Illyria rose from the flames untouched. The oily flames rolled off of her.

"You've made your choice then?" Illyria said. She understood. "The penalty for treachery is death." She said. Buffy had indeed made her choice. Illyria was an Old One and she was a slayer. There could be no peace between them. Hive flicked across the room faster than the eye could follow. She stopped before Mortok. Buffy looked at him and said in the language of the Predators.

"Go! Kill them. Kill them all!" She yanked her scythe from the wall. Mortok was in the elevator as she turned to face Illyria.

Andorra addressed the fleet as they orbited Alpha Centuri.

"Attention, ship crews and others watching. We stand at the abyss of our great challenge serving the needs of honor. This great hunt will generate generous scores for this generation and generations yet unborn. We have been tasked to complete this great hunt. Our kinsman, my beloved brother, even now hunts in the cursed places. We will stand with him as he strikes at the devils of this Earth. We will hunt them in the dark places, we will hunt them in space, we will hunt the Senior Partners where they dare hide. Never forget why we are here. We are hunting for the fallen honor of Barik Null. We shall hunt and we shall find it! Across the fleet there were cheers. Andorra gave the word. The fleet jumped to Earth.

It tasted like ashes. The blood of Dracula filled Faith's mouth. The memory of Willow was correct. She hated this plan but it appeared to be working. Faith could feel the return of the soul of Buffy Summers. The dark memories of Dracula connected her more completely to the source of the power of the slayer. But this was not a spell; this was not a compulsion of the force behind the slayer. This was a purer, cleaner connection. The thrall broke. Faith whipped out her stake and stabbed Dracula. The stake floated millimeters above his heart.

"_Only because you helped save Buffy_." Faith hissed to him. She pulled the stake out. Dracula stumbled backwards. He understood the point she'd made. He would never disrespect her again. At the window Xander stood open mouth staring up at the sky. His initial assessment was correct. This day was going to suck badly. Above his head were hundreds of thousands of Predator ships. The fleet had arrived.

Buffy slammed in to Illyria like a missile. They both hit the flaming wall behind them cracking it. Buffy twisted her body swinging the scythe through an accelerated arc. The edge of scythe sliced into Illyria's skin. It succeeded where other weapons had failed. A slice of black shell came off. White bone showed. Illyria grabbed at Buffy. Buffy used the body of the scythe to block her hands. Illyria grabbed the handle of the scythe then disappeared.

"She can stop time." Buffy remembered. She dropped herself flat. A spurt of black lighting came out of nowhere and stabbed the air where she once stood. The slayer within her knew what to do. Buffy rolled over and leapt to her feet. With preternatural senses she pivoted a half turn and threw her scythe at an empty space hard enough to punch through steel. The roaring of flames became a whisper. The scythe slowed in mid air. The blur that was Illyria settled into the shape of the alien. They both heard a voice speaking to them.

"Enough!" spoke the Empress. The Queen-of-Queens was once again in Buffy's mind. This was the source of the life force of the alien race. Her eggs produced only queens. "I have need of you Illyria." The empress said. "We have other wars to fight. Old one, I am the true reservoir of the living memories of this galaxy. Join me and we will take the blood memories of all life everywhere." Illyria stood before Buffy a moment then dashed into a portal that lead to the Alien home world.

The black portal closed behind Illyria. Buffy exhaled. There was a moment of relief. Buffy looked up past the jagged edges of the walls that opened up to the sky and despaired. Her eyes looked up and up and up. Nearly a million predator ships filled the sky above her.

He wore a golden suit. His ancestors began work on it soon after Barik Null was taken by the Senior Partners. They never made deals with aliens. The Yautja considered all aliens as prey. It insulted them to have to make a deal with _meat_. Mortok spoke the spell given to him by agents that spied on the Wolf Ram and Hart for thousands of years. A white button appeared above the other buttons that controlled the elevator. Mortok pressed it. The elevator moved. He was on his way.

The elevator doors opened into the white room. Mortok stepped into the purview of the Senior Partners. Around him in all directions was nothing but a stark brilliant whiteness. The display in his facemask went wild. Blinking lights and insane computers were telling him that he was nowhere in space or time. The White Room was a pocket universe all to itself. He was about to teleport to the dimension of the Senior Partners when he was distracted by the sight of a little girl in a blood red dress walking up to him. She stopped and looked at him for a long while. His tactical sensors told him that this was no little girl.

"You're going to kill them, aren't you?" asked Mesektet. The being before Mortok was an ancient evil. He didn't care. This moment was the summation of ten thousand years of intent. He would not let down his family. He would not let anything get in his way. Mortok activated his suit. He disappeared in the flash of brilliant white light.

The ancient evil thought to herself. "He really is going to kill them." This was good news. The Senior Partners kept thousands of lower beings in check. If they were gone, chaos would ensure. Mesektet smiled and went to spread the good news.

The spies were right. Everything his family had learned about the Senior Partners told him that they were no longer humanoid. The Senior Partners had evolved into shades of pure malevolent evil. He saw them floating in the air above a three sided dais. The targeting computers recognized two of the three Senior Partners. They were the original aliens that had killed and zombified his ancestor.

"So, you're here?" One of the Senior Partners said. "We knew you were coming." Mortok was surprised. They were behaving civilized. Clearly, this was a trap. He approached them slowly laying down a series of land mines around the premier of the Senior Partners.

"You are a great hunter Mortok Null." said a resonating shade of black. "Your family will always have a place with us" It said. "Take Barik's place. Hunt the slayer for us. You will live forever."

"There are no points given for hunting children." Mortok said expressing his disgust for the Senior Partners.

"We can take what we want." It said.

"You can try." Mortok responded.

A flash of white energy filled the room. The entire chamber was flooded with enough energy to melt a mountain. When the light faded, Mortok and Senior Partners remained.

"Yeah." Mortok thought.

His golden suit allowed him to hover between dimensions. In the blinding moment of their amazement Mortok slashed at them with his hunting knife. He shared the same dimensions as the Senior Partners. Sick green white energy splashed out of the resonating shade of black. His knife broke as it hit something hard at the heart of the monster. The others realized too late what was happening. The plasma gun on his shoulder activated. A second Senior Partner was blown away in a blue white explosion. The third ran. It was near the premier of the room when Mortok hit the kill switch. A series of mines exploded. The third Senior Partner was torn to shreds. Mortok gathered the shattered fragments of his favorite knife then teleported out.

Buffy knew why they were here. This was the same fleet she'd hoped to vanquish from Jupiter space. Even without the planet killer this fleet still had the sheer fire power to destroy the world. Buffy had no way of knowing if Mortok was successful in his hunt for the Senior Partners. She only knew she had to exterminate this fleet.

"_The Key is energy…"_ The voice of Hive whispered in her mind. It took Buffy a moment to understand. When she did, she began to utter an old spell as if it was a last desperate prayer.

Andorra paced the width of the bridge. She hated leaving so many hunters behind to be killed at Jupiter space but it was the only way to purge both the Plague and the phantom of the warship planet. More important things occupied her mind. She was more concerned about her big brother. It was easy enough to find his cloaked ship hovering above Los Angeles. The devastation to the city below was terrifying. Square miles of the landscape below were on fire. It looked as if it had been hit by an atomic bomb. Andorra grimaced. Unless her brother safely returned from hunting the Senior Partners she would make sure the entire planet looked as bad as the burning city below her.

Lights began to flash on the control console. They were telling her impossible things. She felt a strange vibration beneath her feet. The entire fleet felt it. Andorra called up the external display. The universe around her had gone crazy.

Around the fleet space was melting. The walls between worlds were coming down. The Key made her fleet the center of the all Seeing Eye. Around Andorra and hundreds of thousands of predator ships billions of universes and the things that lived within them suddenly appeared. Red and white ribbons of fire lit the sky as the edges of universes struck each other sending out quantum sparks that were the shadow of the big bang. Near the back of the fleet, halfway to the moon virtual pair bonds were broken. The zero point energy of empty space flashed outwards in a hellish yellow glow. Fifty thousand ships were incinerated. Other pockets of fire began to appear.

Hive found her voice.

"LEAVE THIS PLANET!" Shouted Hive to the Predator fleet. "Never return in force again!" Andorra heard her. She refused to leave until she saw her brother's ship began to move. She waited until it had returned to the fleet.

She gave the order. One by one the ships disappeared in blooms of pale white light. When they were gone Buffy returned the energies of the key to the vessel. Buffy released the force that had held her. She felt Hive retreat into the dark places of her mind. Dawn elbowed her. The Summers girls looked at each other a moment. Dawn spoke.

"You're still a butt head." she said. Buffy smiled and hugged her sister. It was good to have her back. It was good to be herself again.

**Epilog:**

Giles walked into the room. He carried a package with him. Buffy lay on her bed. She was still feeling under the weather. She was still feeling the effects of being a member of an alien species. There were times she caught herself tracing her fingertips over her throat wondering why she only had one mouth. Giles placed the box on the bed.

"Hi." Buffy said to Giles. "For me?" she asked.

"There's no return address." Giles said. He examined the box carefully. He was sure it wasn't a bomb. He opened the box. Giles grasped and stumbled backwards. Buffy peeked into the box. She arched an eyebrow.

"Now there's something you don't see every day." She said. Inside the box was the polished alien head. Next to it was a simple handwritten note. She remembered enough of the Predators language to understand it.

It said "To the hunter goes the prize. One million five hundred thousand points." Buffy smiled. She stood on her toes as she took the alien skull and placed it next to the cracked facemask of Barik Null.

"Now I've got a complete set." Buffy said. They looked at each other a moment then laughed.


End file.
